Tales of Drudgery & Boredom.

Acne science: What makes pimples so peculiar to people? – By Jesse Bering – Slate MagazineHumans are pimply. It's part of what sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. While it's true that some form of acne vulgaris affects other species—it's been found in some Mexican hairless dogs and induced experimentally in rhino mice—acne is largely an affliction of our accursed species alone. (Somewhere between 85 and 100 percent of adolescents exhibit acne—and a significant minority of adults, too.) Why is the human animal so peculiar in its tendency to form volcanic comedones, papules, pustules, nodular abscesses, and, in some severe cases, lasting scars? According to evolutionary theorists Stephen Kellett and Paul Gilbert, we probably owe these unsavory blemishes to our having lost our apish pelts too rapidly for our own good.